The present invention relates generally to protective gloves. More particularly, the invention relates to a protective glove having an inner glove with removable outer layers and a method of use and manufacture thereof.
Manufacture of pharmaceuticals, electronics, optical parts and the like generally require use of protective gloves for certain steps of each respective process. Likewise, the use of protective gloves have commonly been used in settings where the hand is likely to be soiled, contaminated or cause soiling or contamination to an object to be handled, such as the health care industry, cosmetic industry and the like. The protective gloves serve to protect the user from the object handled and the handled object from the user. For instance; in the manufacture of electronic circuit assemblies, any ionic contamination or particles can deleteriously affect final device performance. Thus, the use of protective gloves can prevent both contact by a user""s hands which are known sources of particle contamination and contamination from materials generated by the glove. In the health care industry, protective gloves are worn by health care staff to prevent bacterial contamination to and from the patient, thereby preventing a source of infection.
The typical protective glove is a stand alone glove and is used by donning the glove on the user""s hands. The gloves are typically made of nonpyrogenic flexible materials such as, rubber, vinyl, latex or the like and provide a barrier between the hand and the object to be handled. The gloves are generally sold as loose individual gloves, or as sterile, prepackaged gloves prepared in a clean environment in multiple clean bags. One problem with these gloves is that the user is typically faced with changing environments requiring frequent changing of the gloves. For example, clean, contaminant free gloves used in the pharmaceutical, optic, electronics and other industries are worn in clean, controlled environments. To prevent contamination of this environment, workers don protective clothing including, among others, clean contaminant free, protective gloves. To maintain maximum cleanliness in the controlled environment and thus product integrity, workers periodically change these gloves on a set schedule or whenever the work environment dictates the use of clean, contaminant free gloves. Under normal conditions, a health care worker must don a new pair of gloves that are sterile and substantially contaminant free to attend to a patient""s wounds. The worker cannot use the same gloves he/she might have used earlier for other purposes, such as emptying a bedpan. It would be desirable to the health care worker to be able to use one pair of gloves for general work in a patients room wherein a glove with a protective barrier is all that is needed. It is further desirable for that same pair of gloves to be easily adapted for use in attending to a patients wounds, if needed, wherein the glove is substantially free from contaminants, thus eliminating the frequent changing of gloves for different uses.
Accordingly, there is a need for a novel and improved protective glove that offers a higher level of cleanliness or purity, is easy to don, can be all- purposely used and if, or when required, easily adapted for use as a substantially contaminant free glove suitable for use in clean work environments. Since the gloves are generally used once and then discarded, the gloves must be relatively inexpensive to manufacture.
The present invention is directed to a protective glove comprised of an inner glove with removable outer layers. Advantageously, the inventive protective glove can be worn and used with the outer layers removed or intact. Upon removing the outer layers, the inner glove surface is substantially contaminant free and can be used in conditions that require a clean work environment without being a source of contamination to the user or the object handled.
The removable outer protective layers are frangibly fused to selected sides of the inner glove. Each outer glove layer is comprised of a nonpyrogenic material having a lower melt temperature than the inner glove material allowing the outer glove layers to be easily removed. Preferably, the outer glove layer is made from a polyolefin. The inner glove is comprised of a nonpyrogenic material with elastomeric characteristics and has a higher melt temperature than the outer glove layer material. Preferably, the inner glove is water vapor permeable for improved wearer comfort. Preferably, the inner glove is comprised of a selected one of a polyurethane, polyolefin, polyester, polyacrylate, polytetrafluoroethylene, or a blend or copolymer thereof containing in part these materials. Other materials suitable for use in the present invention will be apparent to one skilled in the art in view of this disclosure. The protective glove according to the present invention allows a user to peel away the outer layer to expose a substantially contaminant free inner glove for use in environments or with objects that require the glove to be a substantially contaminant free barrier.
The present invention advantageously allows the user to don the protective gloves and use them accordingly in an external environment that requires the user""s hands to be protected. Thus, the glove can be used in environments and in a manner consistent with its use as a protective covering for the user""s hands. If the object to be handled or the external environment conditions require the user to minimize contamination, the user can easily remove the outer layers to expose the inner glove having an external surface substantially free from contamination at a time most convenient to the user. Thus, when protection of the work environment is required, the wearer simply removes the protective layer to expose the clean, contaminant free glove.
In one embodiment, a process of securing easily peeled outer glove layers to the clean room glove for easy discard just before entering a clean room environment comprises the steps of cutting a hand shape pattern into a first film and a second film. The second film has a lower melt temperature that said first film. A stack is arranged comprising two layers of the hand shaped first film interspersed between two layers of the hand shaped second film. The layers are sealed forming the protective glove having the inner glove and removable outer layers.
In another embodiment, a process of securing an easily peeled outer glove layers to the clean room glove for easy discard just before entering a clean room environment comprises the steps of providing a hand shaped mold. The mold is dipped into a body of a first liquid material. The mold is withdrawn when a first layer of the first material has become adhered. Once the first layer is dried, the mold is dipped into a body of a second liquid material wherein the second material has a lower melting point than the first material. The mold is withdrawn once a second layer of the second material has become adhered to the first layer. The second layer is then dried forming removable outer layers. The materials are removed from the mold forming the protective glove having an inner glove and removable outer layers.
In another embodiment, an elastomeric glove material is extruded onto an inert polymeric material. Two parts of this multilayer film are placed on top of each other with the inert polymeric material forming the outer layers. A heated hand shaped pattern is simultaneously cut out of the so formed sandwich and the inner glove edges are sealed forming the multilayer glove with removable layers.
Other embodiments of the invention are contemplated to provide particular features and structural variants of the basic elements. The specific embodiments referred to as well as possible variations and the various features and advantages of the invention will become better understood from the accompanying drawings together with the detailed description that follows.